In my travelogue, I wish to be as frank as possible in my observations and musings. To those that have known the artistic traditions India for much longer, and/or are senior conservators, my ideas may seem a bit naive. I hope you will take this opportunity to write to me to discuss your point of view. Though I ask for your name and occupation below, I will keep you anonymous if I bring up our dialogue in future entries. Once again, I encourage all of you to please comment on what I report. If I do not respond immediately, please bear in mind that my access to the Internet will grow more sporadic as I start to travel around India. Thank you for your time and comments.

The National Museum, New Delhi

I found out about the "Three Months' Training Course in the Conservation of Paintings" at the National Museum from Naval Krishna, an art historian in Benares, and Priya Aurora, a conservator in New Delhi. The course has provided an excellent opportunity to meet experts studying the varied painting traditions of India. Not only will they be valuable contacts once I start to travel, I also wish to direct my research towards a particular painting tradition. In addition, the National Museum Institute more than qualified as a host institution for the Fulbright scholarship, and this affiliation will hopefully be recognized by conservators, historians, and artists living in other parts of India with whom I hope to meet. To see a list of lecture topics and speakers, please click here. For my favorite lectures, I will include the notes as a separate link. This may take some time, but do let me know if there is a topic that if of particular or urgent interest. Thanks.

Before I left New York, I was told by someone that "There is no conservation in India." I am happy to report that is not entirely true. While many of the methods being used may seem outdated to the West, they are also recognized as such by the next genearation of conservators. With any luck, these conservators will learn what we have at the Conservation Center: check the international professional literature (conservation and art historical) before proceeding with a new treatment or treatment of an unfamiliar object. Unfortunately, the drawback is that, if they are given any guidance at all during their training, it is usually by a practicing conservator using older methods. As many know, the Indian culture is deeply respectful of their elders, making it difficult to question a senior conservator or even attempt to suggest an alternative protocol. In the dialogues that I have had thus far with recent graduates, they recognize that it is a change they must make, though I suspect it will be slow in coming.

Dialogue with Other Conservators

I think it would be useful to interview conservators at different levels in their training to identify what their needs may be. I've already has several interesting conversations with students and professors at the National Museum, but I think it is important to codify their collective experience in an anonymous fashion. I am in the process of constructing a questionnaire to use during my meetings/interviews with conservators here in Delhi as well as all over India. Again, I would greatly appreciate any suggestions that you might have.

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